Wind power is considered one of the cleanest, most environmentally friendly energy sources presently available, and wind turbines have gained increased attention in this regard. A modern wind turbine typically includes a tower, a generator, a gearbox, a nacelle, and one or more rotor blades. The rotor blades capture kinetic energy from wind using known airfoil principles and transmit the kinetic energy through rotational energy to turn a main shaft coupling the rotor blades to a gearbox, or if a gearbox is not used, directly to the generator. The generator then converts the mechanical energy to electrical energy that may be deployed to a utility grid.
The wind turbine tower typically includes a base tower section secured to a foundation and one or more upper tower sections secured atop the base tower section. The foundation may be a concrete slab foundation, an anchor cage foundation, or any other suitable foundation capable of supporting loads produced by the wind and/or gravitational forces. For typical wind turbines, the base tower section may be secured directly to the foundation. Alternatively, e.g. where the manufacturer of the foundation and the tower are different, such as in a repower situation, a tower base adapter may be required since the bolt holes of the base tower section and the foundation do not align. In other words, for each different tower configuration, either a separate tower adaptor and/or a redesign of the base tower section are required.
Accordingly, an improved tower flange for a wind turbine tower that addresses the aforementioned issues would be desired in the art. Thus, the present disclosure is directed to a tower flange for a wind turbine tower that can accommodate machine heads (i.e. nacelles) or foundations of varying sizes.